1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus that transmits or outputs stored documents or thumbnails thereof, in response to a request from a network apparatus connected via a network. The present invention further relates to a method of obtaining stored documents and thumbnails thereof, a method of outputting stored documents and thumbnails thereof, a system for obtaining stored documents and thumbnails thereof, and a system for outputting stored documents and thumbnails thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
A multifunctional apparatus is an image forming system that functions as a printer, a copier, a facsimile, and a scanner. The multifunctional apparatus is provided with a display unit, a printing unit, and a scanning unit. Four application programs corresponding to a printer, a copier, a facsimile, and a scanner, respectively, are further provided to the multifunctional apparatus, and are switched to change the function of the multifunctional apparatus. Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2002-84383 discloses such a multifunctional apparatus.
The multifunctional apparatus stores document files (stored document) in a document control data base (DB), for example. The multifunctional apparatus sometimes stores sample images of the stored document, or thumbnails, in the document control DB, for example. The thumbnail is a shrunken image of the stored document with which the user can identify a desired stored document easily.
The multifunctional apparatus is connected with a network apparatus and another multifunctional apparatus via the network. The multifunctional apparatus transmits or outputs a stored document and a thumbnail thereof stored in the document control DB in response to a request from the network apparatus. For example, the multifunctional apparatus outputs the stored document and the thumbnail stored in the document control DB using the printing unit, for example. The stored document and the thumbnail stored in the document control DB are often protected by a password. The multifunctional apparatus requires a user who accesses the stored document to input the password and get authentication.
For example, when the network apparatus operated by the user requests the multifunctional apparatus to output the stored document and the thumbnail stored in the document control DB, the network apparatus transmits the document ID and its password to the multifunctional apparatus to identity the stored document or the thumbnail, and prove the user's authority to access the stored document or the thumbnail. The multifunctional apparatus authenticates the password first, and if the user is authenticated successfully, reads and outputs the stored document and the thumbnail stored in the document control DB.
The multifunctional apparatus supports multi process operations involving various functions such as outputting and transmitting as well as many entities such as the network apparatus and the other multifunctional apparatus.
Conventionally, the multifunctional apparatus needs to authenticate the password for each process redundantly.
Additionally, when the stored document and the thumbnail are used by plural processes, the large amount of data of the stored document or the thumbnail needs to be transferred between the plural processes unnecessarily. As a result, the resources of the multifunctional apparatus are wasted.
Furthermore, if many network apparatuses access the stored documents or the thumbnails simultaneously, the document control DB storing the stored documents and the thumbnails is overloaded.